Fasteners for securing threaded members within openings through panels have been known for many years of which examples are respectively disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,426,799; 2,707,013 and 4,595,325 of which all are owned by the Assignee of the present invention and the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference and none of which operate in the manner of the fastener of the present invention.
For example, the fastening device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,426,799 is secured to a panel "A" by a squeezing force applied to its opposite faces by a threaded member "B" and in U.S. Pat. No. 2,707,013 a threaded member, such as a bolt or screw "1", is operative to spread a pair of legs "30" apart whose respective outer portions are formed into locking elements or fingers "35" that are urged directly against the surface of the panel surrounding the opening to secure the fastening device to the panel.
Although the fastener of U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,325 operates in a manner similar fastening device in U.S. Pat. No. 2,707,013 in that a threaded member "5" is operative to spread a pair of resilient legs "10" apart and cause tabs "18" to engage opposite edges of an opening through a panel "P.sub.2 " to secure the fastener within the opening to the panel, legs "10" are shaped entirely differently from those of the fastener of the present invention which features a pair of resilient fingers that respectively extend outwardly away from each other through respective openings through resilient legs for engagement with the panel edge surrounding the opening and further features legs that are in substantial parallel relationship with the threaded member for a prescribed distance of contacting engagement therewith.
Aside from the different manner by which the prior art fasteners (hereinbefore described) become secured to the panel by action of a threaded member, none feature an internally threaded nut portion operative to receive and threadingly engage external threads of a threaded member such as a bolt or screw rotationally advanced therethrough.